Just let it die for god sake, it's truly pathetic at this point. The only negative is people losing their jobs, which I totally empathize with. But this desperate last gasp for air before finally drowning is just sad.
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Polygon: GameStop employees report extreme pressure from ‘desperate’ bosses
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
Believe me, no GameStop employee in the history of the company has ever enjoyed having to push pre-orders, protection plans, "complimentary products" or promotions on customers.
I have vivid nightmares about trying to push pre-orders of Madden 11 on people buying Dance on Broadway for Wii.
I have vivid nightmares about trying to push pre-orders of Madden 11 on people buying Dance on Broadway for Wii.
None of this is surprising. If you read the GameStop Reddit, which had the usual suspects defending GameStop, it's become a place where employees are now complaining about some of the absurd things pushed by corporate, like tech trades. All of these leaks about stores closing, policies and such were outlined in Camelot's videos. Yet people were so ready to jump on him as a liar.
Not shocked here and the way the company treats its employees and customers, nothing of value will be lost.
Not shocked here and the way the company treats its employees and customers, nothing of value will be lost.
Does upper management honestly believe that phone trade in hard sell stuff will work?
Who trades in their phone like that? Why would I want to get quoted on a phone trade in when I'm just buying a video game?
Who trades in their phone like that? Why would I want to get quoted on a phone trade in when I'm just buying a video game?
Gamestop was a terrible place to work at 12 years ago, and somehow this sounds worse.
I hope the store level employees find other jobs before the inevitable.
I hope the store level employees find other jobs before the inevitable.
I definitely think this and the selling open new games things are legitimate annoyances for some, especially here, but I doubt it has anything to do with why they are struggling. They are simply trying to survive in a dying market segment. There business is only going to continue to shrink, no matter what they do, even if they stop "annoying" part of their consumer base, and selling plastic nerd crap or used cell phones is only going to offset that for so long.
This is why I'm buying my Switch Lite from Target, and games from there and other places. It's simple and easy, I can grab a game or two and be out in five minutes, and stop to get some snacks on the way out.
I love staff at my local store. Been going there for over a decade. I would hate to see it close but I don't know how they can salvage the company based on their current situation.
When I picked up Death Stranding from them in November, the employee there tried to slip a game warranty onto my purchase without asking me. I saw it before paying and told him to take it off my purchase, and he got defensive and said to blame his manager and not him. It was like a $5 warranty but shit like that made me wonder how many people go into that store (and if it's happening here, it's probably happening in other stores too) who aren't privy that type of thing and get charged extra because of it. It adds up. Needless to say after that experience I decided not to go there anymore. The way Gamestop hassles you about preorders and warranties is gross and while I'd hate to see people lose their jobs, beyond that I won't mind if Gamestop goes under. They've been unable to adjust with the times and their policies + treatment of their employees are awful.
That and the gauntlet of plush, Funko, and useless crap to get to the registers.
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I said this in another thread but GameStops expanded so quickly and stupidly thinking they were the next grocery stores. I have GameStops located less than a mile, across a highway, from each other. It's nuts.
EB Games here in Canada seem to be perfectly fine. Lots of locations in Toronto and none of the stores seem pushy at all and actually have very nice employees. My hope is that Fairfax or someone else in Canada can save EB should GameStop go under.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Game and Gamestop go under next year after a brief bump provided by the PS5 & XSX launches later this year.
This sucks. My local GameStop employees have been great. They recognize my daughter and me each time we walk in and know to not push sales stuff on us.
The store near my old house sucked though.
The store near my old house sucked though.
I've heard plenty of stories of this happening, employees slipping in warranties and even pro rewards cards. It's shady ass shit that is pushed by even corporate. GameStop as a company deserves to crash and burn, there's just no saving it with the current culture that promotes this sort of behavior.
See what I don't understand is that why that doesn't necessarily work.
Gamestop isn't looking at the forest through the trees. They have a MASSIVE amount of Video Game Collectibles that sometimes can be hard to find anywhere else. If they just went all in with that and weeb shit, I think there's a good market there, in addition to just stocking used/new games. I think there may be a sort of way to turn Gamestop into the place to go for things like collectibles, etc but...i don't know exactly how that would work.
Forcing employees to do the dumb stuff mentioned in the OP shows me they have a total disregard for their employees and that they have absolutely no idea what they're doing.
Digital distribution combined with Amazon delivery for the people who still want physical guaranteed their demise years ago. Frankly I'm impressed they held out this long. They're living on borrowed time, though.
Kind of a shame. I have fond memories of playing the demo kiosks there as a kid, and of going to midnight launches as a teenager. Shame those experiences are gone.
Kind of a shame. I have fond memories of playing the demo kiosks there as a kid, and of going to midnight launches as a teenager. Shame those experiences are gone.
Because they're imminently folding up with the changing market and people are scared of losing their jobs.
because they likely aren't making much money off of you as a customer if all you want to do is buy a game. For every few people that get annoyed by the questions and the upselling if they get one person that actually preorders something, or buys some marked up plastic crap, or sells them an old iPhone, they will take that. The key word is "desperate". They aren't trying to create this fun, chill place for gamers to feel comfortable buying games in.
I sometimes go to a Gamestop to get a controller or something that I don't want to wait to order usually accessories since most of my game purchases are digital.
Every time I go, I feel gross and I hate going. No matter which one in my town I go to, they all feel like gross, dirty, pawn shops and all of the employees look like they hate being there more than I do.
It's sad.
Every time I go, I feel gross and I hate going. No matter which one in my town I go to, they all feel like gross, dirty, pawn shops and all of the employees look like they hate being there more than I do.
It's sad.
Hopefully people working there can start working on getting new jobs, get out of that mess it cant be fun.
One thing I'll miss is the surprising odd trade in deals for consoles.
I got My xbox one x for under 200$ because I traded in a old xbox one, lol
Maybe they will stick around long enough to trade in for xbx
One thing I'll miss is the surprising odd trade in deals for consoles.
I got My xbox one x for under 200$ because I traded in a old xbox one, lol
Maybe they will stick around long enough to trade in for xbx
Dude, be better than that. Thousands of people rely on that place to stay open. Even more if you count families.
We got around it by canceling our preorders and moving them around every few days. That gave us our preorder quota.
For GPGs (the game replacement plan) we'd discount any of the open copies sold as open shop worn and put a GPG plan on there. The open shop worn and GPG would cancel each other out and it came to the exact same price.
Everything else people would buy on their own without pressure. Game Informer subs, and system coverage plans.
Worked there 3 years without ever having to bug anyone. Was nice while it lasted.
My local EB Games knows me well enough not to try and foist add-ons on me, so I'm okay there.
The only issue I've been having as of late is that they're just not getting games on time anymore. Everything is a few days late now, with some games taking up to a week to arrive in store, even when I've had a pre-order for quite some time.
I'm normally a physical guy, but at this rate, I'm strongly considering going digital for (non-cartridge) nextgen.
The only issue I've been having as of late is that they're just not getting games on time anymore. Everything is a few days late now, with some games taking up to a week to arrive in store, even when I've had a pre-order for quite some time.
I'm normally a physical guy, but at this rate, I'm strongly considering going digital for (non-cartridge) nextgen.
I stopped buying physical last gen, but even if I didn't, I still wouldn't shop at Gamestop because everything about their model is fucking annoying. I'd pay more for a game to avoid all the Gamestop bullshit if I had to choose.
I feel horrible for the people working there that have to read this stuff every month it feels like. It really destroys your mental health.
Hope everyone will be able to land on their feet and keep access to their healthcare and income. Shouts out to the workers there.
Hope everyone will be able to land on their feet and keep access to their healthcare and income. Shouts out to the workers there.
Five words: Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. Those are your new best friends, physical brethren.
The shit about desperately trying to buy phones sounds fucking insane. I can't imagine walking into a store to buy Mario Kart and being hounded for info about my phone.
I got into an actual verbal "fight" with a woman interviewing me for a management job at GameStop because she was so heavy handed with the upsell shit and I had the GALL to suggest that some customers want to be left the fuck alone after your first greeting and that part of delivering good service is knowing when to back off and let a shopper shop.
She got insulting and got a really pissy tone, saying shit like "you didn't even greet me before the interview" which was deliciously rich because she was dressed in really lazy clothes and was aimlessly walking around the store with no name tag or ID and didn't greet ME as I came in the store. I thought she was a customer, so I went to the counter and told a staffer I was there obviously. Then she started trying to paint my comments as "not being cut out for customer service work".
My entire resume before now was retail management and customer service, and I've done very well in it. Not to toot my own horn but I was known at one company for "saving the store" after I was brought in so I was pretty heated and once she got insulting I let her have it.
I almost walked out and to this day feel like I should have. Ended up apologizing even though she instigated it and insulted me, because I was desperately unemployed and thought I needed the job. Fuck em.
My ex worked as a keyholder there for over a year (different location though) and reports much of the same behavior to me from HER district manager and store manager. She finally ended up quitting. Point being, they're really oppressive with this shit and it's from the head of the rotten fish all the way down.
She got insulting and got a really pissy tone, saying shit like "you didn't even greet me before the interview" which was deliciously rich because she was dressed in really lazy clothes and was aimlessly walking around the store with no name tag or ID and didn't greet ME as I came in the store. I thought she was a customer, so I went to the counter and told a staffer I was there obviously. Then she started trying to paint my comments as "not being cut out for customer service work".
My entire resume before now was retail management and customer service, and I've done very well in it. Not to toot my own horn but I was known at one company for "saving the store" after I was brought in so I was pretty heated and once she got insulting I let her have it.
I almost walked out and to this day feel like I should have. Ended up apologizing even though she instigated it and insulted me, because I was desperately unemployed and thought I needed the job. Fuck em.
My ex worked as a keyholder there for over a year (different location though) and reports much of the same behavior to me from HER district manager and store manager. She finally ended up quitting. Point being, they're really oppressive with this shit and it's from the head of the rotten fish all the way down.
Is this...common?
I don't know if this is just anecdotal but I've been in a ton of different Gamestops and while all of them ask me if I need help when I walk in, I just say once that I'm good and just looking around and they instantly let me be.
No one's ever hounded me at a Gamestop.
I much prefer digital but yeah, I can't imagine any reason I'd go to a Gamestop over a Best Buy if I had to buy physical.
I haven't bought a game in person from a store in like 5+ years, but being quizzed on my next purchase while I'm completing the current one sounds irritating af.
Yep. Oversaturating the market and cannibalizing their own sales by having stores too close to one another. This was an issue when I worked for the company from 2008-2010. Our district had far too many stores.
Buying Think Geek was such a desperate, knee jerk reaction. When they did that, I knew they were in huge trouble.
Cant speak for everyone, but my experience is like yours until...........i get to the register to pay for something, then i get bombarded with all the questions.
Got a coupon a while back that said 50% extra trade in credit on any system
sold my ps4 pro for around 375$
this is my next gen fund
This is the type of short sighted thinking that I can only imagine comes from super wealthy people who haven't actually been to any sort of store themselves in years if ever that will inevitably only make the decline happen much more rapidly
I'd be concerned about Best Buy as well. They got rid of their gamer club thing, dumped music CDs entirely, and movie selection is a sliver of what it once was. Seems like games would be the next thing to go.
This right here. Shitty GameStop bosses are nothing new.
They dont carry niche games like gamestop does.
He means more when you're checking out. Do you want a protection plan, any preorders you need to make, want to sign up for rewards, please do our survey.
I don't think it's really that big of an issue, as they're just doing their job. Just say no.
They don't even hire people with even basic knowledge of games. The manager we got after my friend left was a damn dipshit. Before he worked at GS he managed a store that sold things for yachts. The dude would panic anytime a customer would ask him anything about any games, and he would have us talk to the customer instead.
For anyone curious what Gamestop is selling these phones at https://wholesale.gamestop.com/
Although this supposedly doesnt count contracts they already have made to sell to foreign entities, actual phones or trashed for parts or something
Although this supposedly doesnt count contracts they already have made to sell to foreign entities, actual phones or trashed for parts or something
Is there any market research that berating their customers with questions and upsells actually helps generate more revenue than just being personable and polite to them? I know for me and many people I know the single biggest reason I loathe going to Gamestop is that it's as bad as going to a skeezy mechanic with the amount of things they try to pressure you into buying. The last time I went to Gamestop to pick up a $20 physical copy of Salt & Sanctuary a few months ago, the guy checking me out berated me for five minutes about how I would definitely want a protection/trade-in plan for an extra $5 or something so I could come trade it back in for additional credit, even though I told him full stop several times I never trade shit back in. It got to the point that I was considering leaving without the game entirely.
I feel for the folks whose livelihoods are vested in the future of Gamestop, but being more aggravating to your customers is not going to grant the company more longevity I would think.
I feel for the folks whose livelihoods are vested in the future of Gamestop, but being more aggravating to your customers is not going to grant the company more longevity I would think.